The AcidStar Incident
So the story about Acidflask's kena legal letter from those A*Sho A*Star people got mentioned in Channel NewsAsia news. And A*Star clarified it did it to "protect its reputation and also that of Singapore". My honour as a Singaporean has been restored.
I also liked the bit where CNA said it broke the story on Wednesday. As Tomorrow.sg puts it, they broke the story two weeks after Tomorrow.sg broke the news, and one week after foreign media caught on to it. "Tomorrow.sg should be renamed Two-weeks-in-advance.sg."
Miyagi-san oso say.
I suppose this is one way to get your blog famous (not to say Acidflask did it to get famous, ok?). But famous cannot eat one. And having to shut down your blog after getting famous this way is enough to make you sian half. And with the Singapore blogosphere being admired by folks as far as New York, you would not want to shut down and miss the fun.
Another way to get famous is to go the silly faces route and get linked, like Celly, JL LT (who did it again), and Big F**k (hey, he also has asterisk!).
It also helps if, like Big F**k, you say stuff on your blog like "Let's face it; other than xiaxue, no Singapore blogger can claim to be bigger than the brown." I am flattered but I hope he does not mean bigger in physical size. The brown has been working out leh.
Just make sure your funny faces are not defamatory to A*Star.
CNA report:
SINGAPORE : A*Star (Agency for Science, Technology and Research) confirmed it had warned a Singapore student of legal consequences over a public blog containing defamatory statements.
On Wednesday, Channel NewsAsia broke a story about how the Singapore student, who is pursuing his Masters degree in the United States, shut down his blog after he was threatened with legal action by A*Star.
Chen Jiahao was a former Public Service Commission scholar.
A*Star, in its response to Channel NewsAsia, said it found the public blog contained defamatory statements.
It also said it had the responsibility to protect its reputation and also that of Singapore.
So it warned the blogger of legal consequences unless the objectionable statements were removed and an acceptable apology published.
A*Star also said it welcomed a diversity of views in all media, but the statements made in the blog "went way beyond fair comment". - CNA/de
